We reviewed an earlier version of the SwitchView MP, under a different brand name, here. Like that model, this one allows you to connect up to four computers to a single keyboard, mouse and monitor, and then switch between them whenever you want to. There are obvious practical benefits to this, especially if you have separate 'work' and 'games' machines at home, or a laptop and a desktop machine, or even if you need different platforms (e.g. PC, Sun and Mac) for development or technical support purposes.

The SwitchView MP (the 'MP' stands for 'Multi-Platform') is quite small with a selection of LEDs on the front and a single push-button switch on the front panel. At the rear are connectors for a PS/2 keyboard and mouse, a monitor and a Sun keyboard/mouse input. Alongside these are four proprietary ports, and it's these that connect to your various machines. How you connect them depends on which cable you use. There are cables for PS/2 and VGA connections, AT/Serial and VGA, USB and VGA, Sun and VGA, Sun and 13W3 and so on. Hot-plugging is supported, so you don't have to switch the existing machines off to connect a new one.

Taking its power from a mains adapter, the SwitchView MP automatically translates the instructions - including keyboard codes - from each machine, so it doesn't matter whether one system requires a PS/2 mouse and the other uses a USB mouse, for example. In addition, the unit will keep the mouse 'alive' when changing from one machine to another, so you don't lose control of the pointer when changing from, say, a Windows 2000 system to a Windows NT system. For server installations the unit can be set to scan through all connected machines (like a CCTV display) and in the event of a localised power failure the SwitchView MP will run off power from the connected machines' keyboard ports.

Green and yellow LEDs let you know which computers are connected and which one's currently live. The switch on the front panel is used to cycle through all the connected machines. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard short-cut. This defaults to pressing the Control key twice and then the number of the connected machine, but since that could conflict with some games keys - as we pointed out in our last review - you can reconfigure the hotkey to a less common combination.

Verdict
Connecting several machines to one keyboard, mouse and monitor can save money and desk space, but at this price you'll only start saving money once you've connected three machines - if you have two it could be cheaper just to buy another monitor, keyboard and mouse. The ability to handle different platforms, to keep the mouse 'alive' and to process high screen refresh rates and resolutions could be important. However, if you're not so bothered about these factors, there are manual switches available for much less money.

Company: Avocent

Contact: 01628 421 529

Tags: universal serial bus windows nt windows 2000 video graphics array control key switch windows shareware